Enhanced Oil Recovery Field Case Studies

Enhanced Oil Recovery Field Case Studies bridges the gap between theory and practice in a range of real-world EOR settings. Areas covered include steam and polymer flooding, use of foam, in situ combustion, microorganisms, "smart water"-based EOR in carbonates and sandstones, and many more. Oil industry professionals know that the key to a successful enhanced oil recovery project lies in anticipating the differences between plans and the realities found in the field. This book aids that effort, providing valuable case studies from more than 250 EOR pilot and field applications in a variety of oil fields. The case studies cover practical problems, underlying theoretical and modeling methods, operational parameters, solutions and sensitivity studies, and performance optimization strategies, benefitting academicians and oil company practitioners alike. Strikes an ideal balance between theory and practice Focuses on practical problems, underlying theoretical and modeling methods, and operational parameters Designed for technical professionals, covering the fundamental as well as the advanced aspects of EOR

This chapter briefly presents the interactions between alkali and polymer and the drive mechanisms of alkaline-polymer flooding. The alkaline-polymer field cases presented in this chapter include those in Almy Sands (Isenhour Unit), Moorcroft West and Thompson Creek in Wyoming, David Lloydminster “A” Pool and Etzikom in Canada, and Xing-28 Block (Liaohe Field) and Yangsanmu in China.

Enhanced oil recovery field case studies bridge the gap between theory and practice in a range of real-world EOR settings. Areas covered include steam and polymer flooding, use of foam, in situ combustion, microorganisms, "smart water"-based EOR in carbonates and sandstones, and many more. Oil industry professionals know that the key to a successful enhanced oil recovery project lies in anticipating the differences between plans and the realities found in the field. This book aids that effort, providing valuable case studies from more than 250 EOR pilot and field applications in a variety of oil fields. The case studies cover practical problems, underlying theoretical and modeling methods, operational parameters, solutions and sensitivity studies, and performance optimization strategies, benefitting academicians and oil company practitioners alike. Strikes an ideal balance between theory and practice.

Developments in microbial-enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) have made huge advancements over the last few years. A new programmatic approach to MEOR is organic oil recovery (OOR), the management of the microbial ecology to facilitate the release of oil from the reservoir. Using this breakthrough process, which does not require microbes to be injected, over 180 applications have been conducted between 2007 and 2011 in producing oil and water-injection wells in the United States and Canada. This chapter reviews the OOR process, a summary of results and two case studies in detail.

Water flooding of oil reservoirs has been performed for a century in order to improve oil recovery for two reasons: (1) give pressure support to the reservoir to prevent gas production and (2) displace the oil by viscous forces. During the last 30 years, it was discovered that the wetting properties of the reservoir played a very important role for the efficiency of the water flood. Even though much work have been published on crude oil–brine–rock (CBR) interaction related to wetting properties, Professor N.R. Morrow, University of Wyoming, asked the audience the following question at the European enhanced oil-recovery (EOR) meeting in Cambridge, April 2011: Do we understand water flooding of oil reservoirs? If we are not able to explain why injection fluids of different ionic composition can have a great impact on displacement efficiency and oil recovery, the answer to Morrow’s question is NO. Researchers have to admit that we do not know the phenomena of water flooding well enough. The key to improve our understanding is to obtain fundamental chemical understanding of the CBR interaction by controlled laboratory studies, and then propose chemical mechanisms, which should be validated also from field experience. In this chapter, I have tried to sum up our experience and chemical understanding on water-based EOR in carbonates and sandstones during the last 20 years with a specific focus on initial wetting properties and possibilities for wettability modification to optimize oil recovery. Chemically, the CBR interaction is completely different in carbonates and sandstones. The proposed chemical mechanisms for wettability modification are used to explain field observations.

In this chapter, we briefly present the fundamentals of alkaline flooding which include comparison of alkalis, alkaline reactions with crude oil, water and reservoir rock, and alkaline flooding mechanisms. Typical field injection data like alkaline injection concentrations and volumes, and field application conditions are discussed. Finally, we present two mobility-control cases in Russia, one case using high alkaline concentration in Hungary, one caustic-flooding case in India, three cases in the United States, and one case in a Canadian heavy oil field.

This chapter covers the alkaline surfactant–polymer (ASP) process and field results. Background information describing the history of alkaline, alkaline surfactant, alkaline polymer, and ASP flooding processes is given, followed by a review of the requirement of high acid content in the crude oil for these processes to be effective.

Crude oil development and production in U.S. oil reservoirs can include up to three distinct phases: primary, secondary, and tertiary (or enhanced) recovery. During primary recovery, the natural pressure of the reservoir or gravity drive oil into the wellbore, combined with artificial lift techniques (such as pumps) which bring the oil to the surface. But only about 10 percent of a reservoir's original oil in place is typically produced during primary recovery. Secondary recovery techniques to the field's productive life generally by injecting water or gas to displace oil and drive it to a production wellbore, resulting in the recovery of 20 to 40 percent of the original oil in place. In the past two decades, major oil companies and research organizations have conducted extensive theoretical and laboratory EOR (enhanced oil recovery) researches, to include validating pilot and field trials relevant to much needed domestic commercial application, while western countries had terminated such endeavours almost completely due to low oil prices. In recent years, oil demand has soared and now these operations have become more desirable. This book is about the recent developments in the area as well as the technology for enhancing oil recovery. The book provides important case studies related to over one hundred EOR pilot and field applications in a variety of oil fields. These case studies focus on practical problems, underlying theoretical and modelling methods, operational parameters (e.g., injected chemical concentration, slug sizes, flooding schemes and well spacing), solutions and sensitivity studies, and performance optimization strategies. The book strikes an ideal balance between theory and practice, and would be invaluable to academicians and oil company practitioners alike. Updated chemical EOR fundamentals providing clear picture of fundamental concepts Practical cases with problems and solutions providing practical analogues and experiences Actual data regarding ranges of operation parameters providing initial design parameters Step-by-step calculation examples providing practical engineers with convenient procedures